Comfort and Warmth

Inside Jack's apartment, in his bedroom, one could see 2 figure currently sleeping next to each other, the faces they are making indicates that both of them are enjoying their slumber. Both of them are sleeping very closely to each other, just one more push on either side will make on of them fall into the other's embrace.

It is now 8.21 AM and Jack suddenly woke up as he heard a pretty loud gasp on his side, he opened his eyes lazily and look at the source of the sound, as he gets the clear figure on his head, he finally wakes up from his lazy state.

"Lily, good morning" Jack said in a rather surprised tone, he seemed to forget that Lily is living with him, for now.

To understand what happened, we need to go back a few hours, A few hours ago....

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"Go change into your pajamas in the bathroom, I'll change into mine here." Jack said after both of them had arranged Lily's daily things, both of them are tired and just want to sleep.

Lily grabbed her newly bought light pink pajamas and changed in the bathroom while Jack changed his outfit into sleeping clothes, a short-sleeved grey T-Shirt and a short grey pants. Lily came out a minute after with her pink pajamas on and is brushing her teeth.

Jack came beside Lily and brushed his teeth too, he had always done this as this is a habit he carried from his previous life, even if it did not bring him any benefits, it's a habit.

While brushing his teeth, Jack kept stealing a glance at Lily : nightwear edition. Personally, he preferred Lily in her normal clothes but this is not bad too. Both of them finished brushing their teeth at the same time.

Coming out of the bathroom, Jack is thinking what to do, his bed is King-Sized, meaning holding 2 people, especially if 1 has a small figure is more than enough but the problem lies on Lily herself, Jack have no problem if he is forced to sleep with Lily [duh...] but will Lily accept?

Jack decided to just sleep at the couch as he will never let his girl sleep uncomfortably, the couch itself is not uncomfortable but if he can give Lily more, why not.

"Lily, you sleep on the bed, I'll sleep here" Jack said as he pointed at his couch, Lily followed his finger and saw the Jack's temporary bed. She knew Jack will be uncomfortable if he sleeps here as his feet will be hanging, on the other hand if she sleeps here, it's a perfect fit.

"No, this is your house so you sleep on the bed, I'll sleep here, i know your feet will be uncomfortable." Lily said with a smile, she went into Jack's bedroom and took the brown bear plushie she had play with today and said "I'll just borrow this for a while if you don't mind"

Suddenly a hand grabbed Lily's wrist and pulled her into the bedroom, Lily's small body is dragged until she reached Jack's bedroom, she wanted to break out but to no avail as Jack is too strong.

"You're a little girl, so just follow my orders." Jack said with a stern tone and added after a bit "If you still insist on sleeping on the couch, I'll sleep here with you and hold you here till the sun rises."

Jack only said the last sentence as a joke, kind of, as he had a very low expectarion for it to be accepted but Lily suddenly answered

"Fine, let's sleep here together." Jack could see Lily's face flushed a little as she said her sentence, Jack was dazed and he can't get out of it until Lily, who has already seated on one side of the bed snapped her fingers and motion Jack to come to the other side.

Lily grabbed the plushies near the end of the bed and made "The Great Wall of Plushies" that divides their "territory". Jack snapped out of his state and went on to the other side of the Great Wall, he chuckled at this sight and thought that this is a great start.

Jack gave Lily one of his pillow and gave his blanket to her, he won't ever get cold and the blanket is just something he likes to use. He thought about all of today's various events, in just one day, he somehow feels that he has made a big progress on conquering Lily, he smiled wholeheartedly and said the last thing for today

"Good night Lily." Lily heard this and immediately smiled just like Jack had just did, she replied with a warm and heart-melting tone.

"Good night."

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Back to the present

Lily looked around and saw that Jack had destroyed "The Great Wall of Plushies" and successfully invaded her piece of bed, she stared at him with an annoyed look that seemingly says 'I demand an explanation!'.

Jack saw her annoyed look and just chuckled at it, he saw no hate or anything near that in her eyes and released his breath a little, this is the best case scenario, the most realistic one at the very least.

He really wanted to try patting her head and ruffling her bed hair like on one of the novels he had read but he knew this is real life and doing that will just make her even more annoyed, maybe hate, so he decided to do that later and add it to his "To Do List : Lily 'Premium' Edition".

"I'm sorry, i forgot to tell you that i have a not that good sleeping habit, i swear i didn't do that on purpose." Jack said with an 'I'm Sorry" look on his face and it seemed to work. Lily thought about it for a while and what he said is logical and Jack didn't seem to take any advantages on her.

Lily humph a little while Jack is thinking about how cute her actions are. Both of them got out of the bed after a while, Jack started by getting into the Bathroom and showered himself after teling Lily that while Lily is making Jack's bed.

While in shower, Jack is thinking on what he want to do today, he would very much go shopping again with Lily or just hang out with her but thinking of how he met her, which is very unpleasant, he thought of training her so she can protect herself from literally anything.

After Jack finished his shower and shower thoughts, He materialize a towel to cover his little dragon and got out, when he got out, he saw Lily playing with his plushies on the bedroom happily and smiled at the sight, he really can't get enough of her, he feels that the more and longer he got to know her, he will only love her more.

Jack called out to her and told her to take a shower, he saw Lily blushed and ran inside the bathroom, he remembered that he's still not wearing any clothes, revealing his well-trained muscles, if Jack is wearing clothes, his muscles are not that visible so Lily seeing his charming muscles for the first time will definitely blush.

After Lily entered the bathroom, Jack 'wore' his usual shirt and pants but this time, he did not print any Pikochu on it, He's trying to court Lily after all, and wearing it will just be a nuisance, imagine, someone who likes you and while he's trying to make you his girlfriend, he wears an Anime T-Shirt....it's kind of like a guaranteed fail.

'30 minutes should be enough' Thought Jack as he went out to find a place to train Lily, he wanted everything to be ready when she's getting out of her shower, Jack can now turn into a complete Venom form, greatly enhancing his power and makes things easier for him.

He got out of the house and searched for a closed and deserted place, he didn't want Lily to be disturbed. He search around Q-City for this kind of place and if he couldn't find any, he could just search in another city.

Q-City is a relatively large city, and by Jack's estimate, it must be one of the largest as it took him quite a long time to thoroughly search the city. After searching every part of the city, he found nothing that he can use so he expand his search range into the outer skirts, if he still can't find someplace like an abandoned factory, he would need to go back to the forest he uses to live on.

After 20 minutes, he had finally found a good place, an abandoned food factory pretty far away from Q-City, he explore the place for a while and found some monsters hiding inside, Jack guessed that the factory was abandoned after a monster raid and since it's away from Q-City, watchdog man won't bother cleaning up this place.

Inside there are 4 monsters and just from their looks, they seem to be on tiger threat, Jack didn't want to waste anymore time and just directly use one of the weapons he practiced with, a Ryyk blade to kill them. [Imagine Genos's blade that came out from his hand, now take that blade and give it a handgrip, just search it if you don't get it]

The monsters, feeling Jack's presence turned around and saw another monster, much scarier than them self and something seem to pop out from it's hand, making the monsters keep their guards up. Jack didn't give them a chance for them to do anything and directly went in for the kill.

He kicked forwards and head towards the first monster, a giant Hound, even with Jack's explosive speed, the hound is able to see Jack's movement but only seeing is useless as the next second, the hound beast is dead with his head sliced off.

The other 3 monsters couldn't react as fast as the hound, they all died helplessly to Jack's blade, all of their heads are sliced off, leaving blood marks all over the floor, making Jack realize that he will use this place with Lily, he's used to seeing blood but Lily, prob..... 'well she's a Hero so she should be able to handle this amount of blood, i just need to remove the gory part.' Thought Jack as he cleaned up his 'mess'.

After cleaning up, he came back to his house and after he came in, he saw Lily, drying her hair with her new towel while wearing her new T-Shirt and short pants.

"Where are you from?" Lily asked as she kept drying her silky black and blue hair

"Do you have to do anything today?" Jack asked

"Yeah, i need to clean up my house first if its damage is not that bad, if it's that bad, then I'll have to manage somehow while collecting money, or there are other undesirable options." Lily said as she squirmed her brows, Jack guessed that the undesirable option is selling the land and get somewhere else to stay.

"I'll accompany you to your house first and then I'll take you somewhere." When Lily heard the first part she seemed...happy? And after she heard the second part she asked where which Jack answered as 'Surprise'.

Lily wanted to know but it isn't really that important, she kept thinking what her house would be after the raid, messed up for sure, but how bad.

Jack and Lily left 'their' house and grabbed a breakfast, a simple egg sandwich from the local 7-Elephant while walking towards the train station to go to C-City, Jack wanted to just carry Lily but he knew that taking the train would be faster so he reluctantly give up on feeling Lily's soft body in his embrace again.

30 Minutes had passed and they had finally arrived at C-City, Jack felt very irritated right now, if he had just carried her to C-City it would've take a lot faster time, true the train is faster but waiting for the tickets is very slow.

Lily showed Jack the way to her home, she lives near the outskirts of the city so it's a pretty long walk for her, Lily kept telling Jack the thing she know about the city as they walk thought them and Jack enjoyed it, he enjoyed seeing new things he couldn't find on his homeland, or maybe Earth, there are so many delicacies that are new for Jack so he was eager to try them.

After 15 minutes, Both of them had came near to Lily's house and from seeing the neighboring houses, Lily couldn't imagine what her house will be like, she kept denying the thought that it's completely destroyed but alas when they saw the house, Lily's body tried slumping down to the ground.

Jack immediately grab a hold of her body and kept her body from falling, Looking at the house, Jack knew that Lily's reaction is justifiable. The house is a complete mess, like the house beside her's nothing is left.

Jack knew that monsters must've came inside her house and wrecked it as everything inside is destroyed and had suffered an irreparable damage.

Jack could hear faint sobbings in front of him, he knew the house is that only lasting material memory she have from her parents and losing it would harm her mental state.

"I...i want to check inside for a....while" Lily said slowly while getting chocked on her tears, Lily came into the house and searched around to find something, as she searched more and more and not finding what she want, she started crying more and more, tears started falling down to the floor, leaving a trail as she goes.

Jack followed behind her to prevent her from falling or any injuries, he looked around and tried to help Lily find the thing she wants to find, he doesn't know the item but if something looks important, he would just ask Lily if it is it.

Jack suddenly found something glimmering under the basking sunlight, he went and took the paper inside it, Lily seeing Jack holding something up on his hand focused on the thing, she saw it and gasped.

Jack hearing her gasp knew that this is the thing she was looking for, before he could went and give it to her, Lily rushed in front of him and grab the picture.

A picture of a happy family standing on top of a mountain with some snow on their faces, a man and a woman in their thirties are carrying a smiling child as the woman and the child do a matching pose, V on their right hands.

The man had a handsome face with his blue shining eyes and Black hair, while on his utmost left side stands a gorgeous woman with a light blue hair and black Eyes, Both of them are wearing baggy clothes to keep their self warm.

In the middle, one could see a little girl with big eyes and dimple cheeks being lifted by the man, she had a mixture of black and blue hair and blue eyes, clearly from her parents. The child is smiling widely and anyone who sees the picture would smile as they saw the heartwarming family of three.

Lily cried even more profusely as she directed the gaze to the picture, she started gently rubbing her both of her thumbs, caressing the both the man and woman's face slowly while a sad expression is plastered on her face.

Jack who's standing behind Lily, is having mixed thoughts, he don't know how to comfort her, he wanted to help her overcome her parent's death but he doesn't know how to, he wanted to help her but he's afraid that she will push him away.

As time passes, Lily's sobbing became fainter and fainter until it finally stopped after 10 minutes of pure sadness, she turned around and smiled, tried to at least and face Jack, She could see Jack's conflicted thoughts on his mind.

"Let's go ho...back" Lily said as she prevent the use of the word Home as she knew that her current living place is not her home, this wrecked place is....was.

Jack can't stand it anymore and went up to Lily and hugged her small body, engulfing it with his big body, he kept caressing her head and patting her back as he whispered in her ear.

"I know you're sad but know that you have me now, we might not have been acquaintances for that long, but i promise you that I'll always be there for you, no matter what happens." Her eyes went wide as she heard Jack's firm statement, she could feel that every word that Jack had said came from his heart, she returned Jack's hug and sobs a little on his 'clothes'

A few moments have passed and they both parted from each other, both of them knew that if they kept hugging each other even a second longer, things would go awkward, Jack stared at Lily's shining blue pearl-like eyes while Lily kept her gaze on his black eyes that seemed to suck everything that gaze onto it.

"Come home with me." Jack said while smiling sweetly, he now just wanted to help Lily first and courting her can wait later, he genuinely felt sorry for her and knew she needed a pillar to support her frail heart state.

"But.." Lily wanted to say something but is stopped by Jack's index finger as it closed her soft lifts, Jack slowly said to her ; "Until you find a new place to stay, my home will be our home, Lets go home, Okay?"

Lily felt sincerity in his words and nodded while a slight blush appeared on her face, she bashfully said "ok" in an almost unhearable sound but Jack heard it, he intertwined his hand with hers and pulled her out of the destroyed place.

"Do you have anything else that you need to bring home?" Jack said, as he kept looking forward, not facing Lily, he knew that a slight blush had appeared on his face after he grabs Lily's hand, Lily just smiled at Jack's action that felt comfortable to her as she could feel the warmth that she had not received after a long time.

"No" Lily answered. Both of them kept silent as they head towards the train station, Jack kept feeling the soft sensation he is feeling on his right hand, this was the first time that Jack had sweatedhis back so much, he was nervous, very very nervous.

Last night when he grabbed her hands and pulled her, he was just holding it like a casual friend would but this time, he instinctively intertwined all of his fingers with her's as if both of them are lovers, Jack can't help that his heartbeat kept increasing by the second.

On the other side, Lily is too having her own thoughts, she at first felt happy, the warmth she had always longed for is coming back making her oblivious that the one giving the warmth is not that same person she knew.

She realized it only after they had walked for 5 minutes. She still felt very, very happy as the person beside her is still giving her what she wants but is flustered at the same time, she at first thought that it was just her that are having these kind of thought but feeling his sweat, she knew she's not on her own.

Lily decided to just remove her unnecessary thought and focus on their intertwined hands and Jack, she looked up to Jack's face and saw his average face, she wonders why she feels that this face in front of her is so handsome even when it's obvious that he's just average. She felt something different, something she had never felt before growing inside her heart slowly.

While Lily is staring at Jack's face, Jack, sensing her gaze cleared his mind, removing his slight blush and turn his head to her, In a split second, both of their eyes met until Lily removed her gaze and turned her head around as soon as possible, trying to conceal her previous deeds.

Jack chuckled at her actions and turn his head forward, and seeing the train station in front of them, Jack felt that while holding Lily's hand, time goes by fast. Jack reluctantly remove his hand from Lily's and bought 2 tickets.

While waiting for the train to arrive, a debate in commencing in Jack's mind, the topic is "Should we grab her hand or not!". If one took a peek inside his mind, one could see 2 factions arguing.

"We should just go for it, She obviously didn't remove her hands in those 10 minutes! We should take this chance and give her comfort!" Said a small Jack in a blue shirt

"NO! If we try grabbing her hand, she might think that we're taking liberties on her! We can't rush things! One mistake and everything might crumble down!!!" Exclaimed another small Jack, this one is wearing a black shirt!

"Think of the advancement we will have when we successfully grab her hand again! Do you not feel her soft hands when we held it?! DO you not want to feel it again!!" The small blue jack said as the crowds behind him cheered

"OF COURSE WE DO!!! But think of the possible consequences!!!!" exclaimed the small black jack in frustration

Before the blue jack could reply back, an explosion occurred inside Jack's brain as he tried to keep calm, he never thought that a 3rd choice would appear! Lily had just hold her hand with him!

Jack's face flushed red, as red as a tomato, he had never expected Lily to do it herself, he looked towards her and he could see that same as him, Lily's face is red, He knew doing this took a lot of courage from her side, he felt ashamed at himself that he didn't even dare to try while Lily had done it...

Both of their fingers started intertwining with each other's until finally, all of their fingers had connected, both of their face started blushing more and more until they just decided to calm their mind down and enjoyed each other's comfort and warmth.